Nice, France – July 27: France head coach Thierry Henry watches the match before the men's Group A match … [+]
On a night when the Olympics really came together for the hosts with a Rugby Sevens victory at a sold-out Stade de France, the French football team moved one step closer to the knockout stages with a 1-0 win over Guinea, but question marks remain over Thierry Henry's coaching ability.
France struggled against the confident West African side for much of the night but defender Kilian Sirdilia came to the rescue with a 76th-minute header to put the home team closer to a quarter-final spot and elicit excitement from their supporters.
At the Nice Stadium, roars rang out around the ground as the news broke that France had won its first Olympic medal in rugby. France and Henry are also on a mission to win glory in soccer. In the 1984 Olympics, France beat Brazil 2-0 in the final in Pasadena to win their only gold medal to date in soccer.
It was the first Olympic football tournament to feature professional players, and remains an unusual U-23 tournament to this day. Teams can take part in three over-age players, but because the men's tournament is not on the FIFA international calendar, clubs are under no obligation to release players. Superstar Kylian Mbappe had hoped to play in the Olympics, but was unable to do so.
Instead, France are stacked with reserve players – former Arsenal player Alexandre Lacazette is the best known, followed by Michaël Olysé, who joined Bayern Munich from Crystal Palace earlier this month – but France's stars are sitting on the bench.
Thierry Henry is a household name in football, having won the World Cup after a glittering playing career with Arsenal and Barcelona, but his managerial career has been anything but simple. Having failed to impress in Monaco or Montreal, this tournament offers him a chance to erase any doubts about his managerial credentials. At the same time, the Olympics may be his final chance in the cutthroat world of elite coaching.
Henry, like many modern managers, wants his team to press high and keep possession as much as possible. But that comes with vulnerabilities, especially at the back, that leave spaces behind the defenders. But much of that pressure was invisible on Saturday against Guinea, a enterprising team that narrowly lost their opening match, 2-1, to New Zealand.
On the touchline, Henry was waving his arms frantically. His team was slow and inaccurate. Up front, Lacazette stayed on the periphery and Jean-Philippe Mateta was the most dangerous, but Guinea warned France not to waste money. The West African team had the ball in the back of the net twice in the final minutes of the first half, but both times the goals were disallowed for offside. Castelo Lukeba cleared the ball on the line.
France's performance was as unconvincing as their 3-0 win over the United States, with the hosts playing at a mundane pace in the second half, with no real improvement and little sign of Henry's vision, while Guinea looked dangerous on the counter-attack.
The former Arsenal man was already fumbling around for almost 60 minutes before bringing on Enzo Millot and Arnaud Kalimuendo with fresh legs, but France lacked any punch in the final third apart from a scathing strike from Olize.
And then it was time for France to win. Oliseh assisted Sirdilia's winning goal, to the joy of the stands and the relief of Henry. The team had earned three points and was one step closer to the knockout stages, but even in a zero-sum game like football, the French coach knew his team needed to improve if they were to win Olympic gold. The verdict on Henry and his team is still to come.
